Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

NOTEBOOK “ο”

(“OMICRON”)

DELBRÜCK,GOVERNMENT AND THE PEOPLE’S WILL

Hans Delbrück,Government and the People’s Will, Berlin, 1914

Generally speaking, a most foul, reactionary opus, with tricky argumentsagainstdemocracy. Everything is trotted outagainstdemocracy—sophistries, historical examples, etc.

There is some value in (1) his exposure ofbourgeois(**) democracy (the reference to revealingEnglishsources, for instance).

Literature:                                (**)

Wilhelm Hasbach,Modern Democracy(1912).

Adolf Tecklenburg,Development of the Franchise in France since 1789.

J. Unold,Politics in the Light of the Theory of Evolution(the work of a journalist, he says).

Lowell,The Constitution of England.

Belloc and Chesterton, The Party System.

(2)The Polish question. The author is an opponent of Prussia’s Polish policy as being ineffectual.

P. 1. What is a people? The German people?— we have “many millions—Poles, Danes, Frenchmen” (p. 1).

Polish is being kept alive in the towns. Of the four estates (nobility, clergy, peasantry and bourgeoisie), only the lastnamed is irreconcilable. German colonisation embitters the Poles and unites them nationally. A trade boycott: “Poles, buy Polish!”

The Poles cannot be “conciliated” (p. 171), they should be divided and helped to form a Prusso-Polish party (172).